April 4, 2013

More songs coming out of NPR's Austin 100. Some intriguing and fascinating new music.

America's Son - Air Review
You Know Me - Air Traffic Controller
Elephants - Blaudzun
Shake, Shake, Shake - Bronze Radio Return
Late Nights - Brown Shoe
In The City - Caveman
High School Lover - Bigfoot
Among the Grey - Cheyenne Mize
Days and Days - Chic Gamine
Lake Charlievoix - Dana Falconberry


More to Come...

April 2, 2013

Some new things I've run across....

You Don't Know Me - The Polyphonic Spree
This Ladder is Ours - The Joy Formidable
Heartbeat - The Kopecky Family Band
Illusions  - Shout Out Louds
I Know it (I Feel it, Too) - The Soil and The Sun
Born to Kill - The Thermals


As always - more to come...

April 1, 2013

Another long gap. There's still lots of music floating around my head - as always. Just too many other things to keep up with. I'll try and list a few of the things that are making life pass a little more pleasantly right now


Plastic Cup - Low
Song For Zula - Phosphorescent

Lost - Amanda Palmer

Bottom Feeder - Amanda Palmer
Madness - Muse

Now is Not the Time - CHVRCHES

Wait For Me - Shiny Toy Guns

La Pared - Ileana Mercedes Cabra

Demon Dance - Surfer Blood

Look... The Sun is Rising - The Flaming Lips

Hopefully much more to come later.

February 5, 2013

The past month or so has seen a new year, and enough new dynamics that I'm still processing. That hasn't left a ton of time for music, although I did enjoy the new releases from Green Day and Muse last fall.

The following are thanks to NPR's All Songs Considered and some of the end of year round up shows they produced. I love it when I find a song that seems new, I note it down, and realize that I already listed it months and months ago. Then I take it off... no repeats. The search for good music never ends.

Same Love - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Tesselate - Alt-J
Offspring are Blank - Dirty Projectors
Elephant - Tame Impala
Simple Song - The Shins
Take a walk - Passion Pit
Small Town Moon - Regina Spektor
The Carpenter - The Avett Brothers
Some Nights - Fun.
Hot Knife - Fiona Apple
Angels - The XX


More to come ...

End of August

It's been a weird period of adjustment for a number of different reasons. Been listening to a lot of Editors, but not a ton of other music. But here are a few songs that are getting me through the days.

Smile (Pictures or it didn't happen) - Amanda Palmer
On and On - The Sea and Cake
Radioactive - Imagine Dragons
Demons - Imagine Dragons
Artificial Nocturne - Metric
Youth Without Youth - Metric
Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors - Editors

Publishing this like 2 months after the fact. Need to collect my thoughts and put down what I'm listening to now. Ugh.

Firefly Music Festival

So this post is long overdue, but many other things going on have kept me from taking the time to get it down... but enough excuses.

My music thoughts from Firefly

1) The Killers did not disappoint.
     Spectacular live, we stood for 5 hours and were still some 15 rows back. Brandon looked like he was enjoying himself immensely. Guy beside me caught a drumstick. Musically they are better than you would know. They nailed every song, but at the very end - after overrunning the cutoff time by 5 mins or so, Brandon finally left the stage and the other 3 stayed out jamming for several more minutes. Musically quite good. All in all the highlight of the weekend.

2) The Head and The Heart
     Best "discovery" for me. Had heard of them, but didn't know their music. Raw, honest, lovely music. Quite impressed with them. They brought tears to my eyes, and that's a little hard to do, especially when it's new to me.

3) Imagine Dragons, Walk the Moon
     Awesome to see bands on the rise and both of these really gave the impression that they were pinching themselves and super excited to be there. Great set from Imagine Dragons, looking forward to their debut album - out next month. Walk the Moon was good, loved seeing the wives / girlfriends racing around the wings snapping pictures of the crowd. They looked astonished at the crowd response.

4) Death Cab for Cutie
     My opinion of Death Cab changed completely because of this set. Ben Gibbard is awesome - that is enough. In addition, they played an excellent set including some impressive multi-instrumentalism from several different members. Quite impressive musically.

5) Jack White, The Flaming Lips, Silversun Pickups, OK GO.
     All Awesome shows. But then we knew they would be.

6) Bassnecter, Girl Talk, Trampled by Turtles, Bombay Bicycle Club, Heartless Bastards, Ra Ra Riot
     The ones I didn't see that I completely wish I had. Sacrifices had to be made. Maybe next year!

7) AWOLNation, Grouplove, Polica, Tinie Tempeh
     The disappointments. Some like Grouplove and Polica were solid but I just didn't feel connected to the music as much as I hoped. Tinie Tempeh was terrible and AWOLNation just wasn't working for me.

8) Blind Pilot, Modest Mouse, The Black Keys
     Still trying to decide. Blind Pilot was good, I'm not sure I get their lyrics or their energetic chillness. Modest Mouse seemed like they used to be insane, and are now a shadow of their former selves... they didn't blow me away. The Keys were excellent at what they do, it's just not my forte. But man they can make a hell of a lot of noise. The crowd loved them, so I give them the benefit of the doubt there.

9) The grounds
     Amazing first year festival. Terrific execution. Lovely crowds. It was full but not crowded. If the festival grows, the grounds will need to grow as well.

10) The experience
     Planning to be there next summer. That says it all. The Live Festival experience is wonderful. I found myself completely at home there like very few other places.


If you are anywhere close to Dover Delaware in June of 2013, come visit me at Firefly. You won't regret it.

Jesse

June 1, 2012

And although it's already June, this is a collection of songs that I found interesting during the months of April and May.

The House That Heaven Built - Japandroids
Glorified High - Sarah Jaffe
Chew - Yuck
Walking Home - We Are Seranades
Grot - St. Vincent
Generals - The Mynabirds
White to Red - Fenster
The Night - Exitmusic
Guggenheim - The Ting Tings
Blood Stain - Tu Fawning
Monuments - Yann Tierson
Drax 2 - Squarepusher


Quite a variety, and they tend to be happier than I'm feeling now. Haven't had enough music in my life.